Press Releases

Laser-based inertial confinement fusion is a market that holds strategic value for the photonics industry. Its feasibility has already been demonstrated. In Germany, consortia from industry and research are forming to tap this climate-neutral and intrinsically safe energy source and create powerful supply chains for it. The state is providing over one billion euros to develop basic technologies for fusion power plants. Current approaches have great potential for innovation beyond fusion. Key players will meet at LASER 2025 for the application panel "Laser Fusion: Energizing photonics Industry". Led by the Fraunhofer ILT, it will shed light on the market potential and opportunities of fusion.

Dr. Wilhelm Meiners has been inducted into the TCT Hall of Fame 2025. With this award, the international expert community recognizes his outstanding achievements in the development of metallic 3D printing. As a doctoral student at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT, Meiners laid the foundation for a technology that is now used worldwide – from medical technology to aerospace – by inventing and patenting the Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) process in 1996. Indeed, the trend he set in motion shows no sign of abating.

Fraunhofer ILT has started operating a quantum internet node that it developed with its Dutch partner TNO. The system is almost identical to the network nodes with which the Dutch research center QuTech demonstrated a quantum entanglement link between The Hague and Delft. The new node will serve as a research platform. Fraunhofer ILT is testing it with partners from industry and science in a local network and continuing to develop the technology. The institute is focusing on photonic components: quantum frequency converters, lasers, optics or single photon sources.

How do you make a metal component permeable without drilling it afterwards or equipping it with filters? Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT have developed a method which can be used to additively and precisely process metallic materials so that they not only are locally permeable or dense – with graded transitions between the states – but can be manufactured reproducible and in a single production step. Fraunhofer ILT will be showcasing the new LPBF applications at Laser World of Photonics 2025 in Munich from June 24 to 27, 2025.

From June 24 to 27, 2025, experts from the fields of laser technology and photonics will come together at the Laser World of Photonics, World of Quantum, World of Photonics Congress and the automatica in Munich, the latter of which is being held in parallel. The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen will use the stage to focus on important future markets and fields of innovation in photonics. The Aachen-based institute will be represented with stands in four exhibition halls, forward-looking exhibits and numerous specialist presentations at the congress. It will also participate in the application panels in the exhibition halls and at the special shows "Photonics meets Robotics: AI Success Stories" in Hall A3.433 and "MedtecLIVE" in Hall A4.218.

In its special show "Photonics meets Robotics: AI Success Stories" Laser World of Photonics 2025 will be focusing on the future field of cyberphotonics, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen is playing a key role in this. Researchers from the institute will give presentations on specific applications and exhibit research results to show how AI and other digital methods are already increasing quality and efficiency in photonics, robotics and laser-based, highly automated manufacturing processes. The special show in Hall A3.433 builds a bridge between LASER and the parallel automatica.

Whether in medical technology, quantum technology or semiconductor production, optical systems are an integral part of many high-tech applications. To ensure that lenses, mirrors and other components meet the highest requirements, manufacturing needs processes that combine precision, efficiency and flexibility. The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT develops tailor-made solutions for precisely this purpose, solutions that consist of a few highly efficient and extremely productive individual steps. Laser-based optics manufacturing enables the industry to produce dimensionally accurate and functional components with low roughness, from prototypes to series production, from microlens arrays to macro-optics, from spheres to free-form optics.

Ultrashort pulse lasers have been a hot topic in precision material processing for years. To discuss the later developments, the UKP workshop in Aachen has become the meeting place for the constantly growing community. This year, the major topics were beam sources, system technology, beam shaping and, of course, applications. Many of the innovations presented had a common goal: scaling down to smaller structure sizes and scaling up productivity.

Thanks to synchrotron radiation, welding processes can be observed in greater detail than ever before – live and in real time! Researchers from Fraunhofer ILT and RWTH Aachen University – Chair for Laser Technology University are working at DESY to make vapor capillaries, melt movements and defects visible. Their findings optimize battery and microelectronics production and pave the way for the development of new materials.

The aerospace industry is undergoing profound change. Companies are facing the challenge of having to drastically shorten development cycles, develop more sustainable technologies and reduce costs, all at the same time. In addition, advances in satellite technology require new manufacturing approaches to make systems smaller, lighter and more powerful. While government space programs continue to play a major role here, private players such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Rocket Lab are driving the commercialization of space travel and setting new standards for efficiency and profitability: Competition has never been so fierce.